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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Paulette from The Way I Sew It has a great quilt to share today, and not only that but a tutorial too so you can make your own! I love the color combos in this quilt, light blues and reds can really do it for me! And, she figured out how to make this quilt all on her own...seriously. Make sure to check out her cute blog, look at these cute potholders she just whipped up! Nice! Now on to the quilt:

Double Pinwheel String Quilt

Back in late winter, when the sky and remaining snow cover were often the same shade of gray, I dreamed of making this colorful double pinwheel string quilt. It was pictured in a book called String Quilts with Style, by Bobbie Aug and Sharon Newman, and it was just that—a picture. There were no instructions for this particular quilt. It was just a gallery example of an awesome string quilt.

Personally, I think ALL string quilts are awesome. I’ve never met one I didn’t like, a LOT. I feel the same way about pinwheel quilts. And scrappy quilts…and bold color? Bring it on! This quilt hit all my happy buttons!

Without instructions and just the photo for reference, I was left to fly by the seat of my pants. So I busted out the old plastic protractor to determine the angle of the inner red pinwheel, did some fiddling to create a template, and away I went.

I used all kinds of scraps for the strings—modern, traditional, vintage—which were pieced onto paper ripped out of the phone book. The blue fabric in the pinwheel blocks was a vintage fabric found at the thrift store. I ran short when it came time for the border, but fortunately there was a Kona blue that was an almost perfect match. It was quilted by my long arm quilter, Sandy, with multicolored variegated thread in an allover design that reminds me of windblown pinwheels.

You can find the details of how to make this quilt on my blog. I posted a four-part tutorial here. And if you make one, let me know—I’d love to see it!

This quilt is a natural choice for a feature here. It is gorgeous. P., I'm so glad you documented the process because pinwheels are AWESOME, and so are string quilts (as you already mentioned). The quilting suits it perfectly. And I think my favorite detail is the stripey binding. It is a huge wow!